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Gold has traded between $1,182 and its 50-day moving average (SMA) at $1,201 so far today…as of 9:25 am Pacific, bullion is down $6 an ounce at $1,192…Silver is off a nickel at $16.20…Copper has fallen 3 pennies to $2.69…Crude Oil has surged $1.53 a barrel to $53.42 while the U.S. Dollar Index has fallen three-quarters of a point to 98.71…

Barclays says that gross longs in Gold, as revealed by the latest COT report ending April 7, are now at their highest level since Feb. 24 and gross shorts are at their lowest since early March.  “Short-term positioning suggests reduced scope for further short covering activity and at the margin, profit-taking is more likely,” they stated.

Global economic growth will climb only marginally this year vs. 2014 as slowing output in major emerging markets and a feeble expansion in rich countries prevent a more robust expansion, the International Monetary Fund reported today…emerging markets are on course for a 6th consecutive year of falling growth rates, led by a faster-than-expected slowdown in China, a steep contraction in Russia and a recession in Brazil, the IMF said in its World Economic Outlook released ahead of its semi-annual meetings…with sluggish recoveries in Europe and Japan and softer output in the U.S. as a stronger dollar weighs on exports, the global economy should expand by 3.5% this year, the IMF predicts…that forecast is up just 0.1% from last year’s expansion of 3.4%…

Oil Update

Crude prices are up today on expectations U.S. shale Oil output will record its first monthly decline in over 4 years, but analysts warned that the broader market remained oversupplied…the U.S. Energy Information Administration expects U.S. shale production to fall by 45,000 barrels to 4.98 million barrels per day in May from April…

OPEC, singling out the United States and Canada, published a stinging critique yesterday of Oil-producing countries that had refused to follow its lead over the last decade in holding back supply in an effort to boost prices…

“Today, operating purely through self-interest is quite simply frowned upon,” said the intergovernmental organization in a bulletin.  “Yet, when it comes to the supply of petroleum, there is a stubborn willingness of some non-OPEC producers to adopt a go-it-alone attitude, with scant regard for the consequences.”

OPEC said that its Crude output had been stable over the last 9 years, averaging 30 million barrels per day…by comparison, non-OPEC production “led by the U.S. and Canada” surged by 6.3 million barrels per day in the same period, the body said…

“In the past, OPEC has often shouldered the burden of ensuring Oil market stability alone. In the current situation, which should be of great concern to ALL, is it not time for this burden to be shared?” asked OPEC, which accounts for 40% of the world’s Crude Oil output…

Meanwhile, the Saudis reportedly jacked up their production to record levels in March…they’re clearly trying to maintain their market share and put the squeeze on marginal U.S. and Canadian shale producers…another issue the Saudis are concerned about, as Bloomberg reported in an excellent piece yesterday, is “peak demand” – at $60 to $70 a barrel, peak demand gets pushed back at least 5 more years to 2030, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch commodities researchers…such a delay would be bad news for renewable energy companies and for anyone hoping to bend the demand curve lower – slowing or stopping the relentless rise of global Oil consumption that has transformed the planet since the first commercial deposit was developed in Pennsylvania in the early 1860’s…

Analysts at JP Morgan noted, “Geopolitical risk in Oil markets remains elevated. From a fundamental perspective however, supply from the Middle East is expected to remain high, with Saudi Arabia and Iraqi production on the rise.”

Today’s Equity Markets

Asia

China’s Shanghai Composite edged another 14 points higher overnight to close at 4136, a fresh 7-year high…China’s Q1 GDP will be released tomorrow…

Europe

European markets were mostly lower today ahead of tomorrow’s ECB meeting and news conference…the euro once again bounced off major support at 105 today…since the start of the year, the beleaguered currency has declined close to 13% against the greenback – a symptom of an increasingly significant rift between monetary policy in the U.S. and Europe…

North America

The Dow has added 52 points as of 9:25 am Pacific…the Nasdaq came within 3 points of the 5000 level in early trading before retreating modestly…

U.S. retail sales rose in March for the first time since late last year, as consumers bought automobiles and other goods, bolstering views that a sharp slowdown in economic growth in the 1st quarter may have been just temporary…the Commerce Department reported this morning that retail sales increased 0.9%…that was still slightly below expectations of a 1% jump but it was nonetheless the largest gain since March last year…it also snapped 3 straight months of declines that had been blamed on harsh winter weather…

A gauge of U.S. business prices rose in March for the first time since October, in line with expectations…the PPI for final demand, which measures prices that businesses receive for their goods and services, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% last month from February, the Labor Department said today…excluding the volatile food and energy categories, the index rose 0.2% as well…

In Toronto, the TSX is off 19 points while the Venture is unchanged at 696 as of 9:25 am Pacific…

Below is a 3-year weekly Canadian TSX sector comparative chart that shows a slow but improving trend for energy and mining issues since last last year…

Cannabix Technologies Inc. (BLO, CSE, BLOZF, OTC) Update

John continues to track the extended pennant formation in Cannabix Technologies (BLO, CSE) with “decision time” approaching imminently…

Keep in mind, pennants are continuation patterns that usually break out in the direction of the previous trend that started…

What this chart is telling us is that BLO is well-positioned for another important move, probably to the upside, during the last half of this month…the potential catalyst for that is anyone’s guess but the company continues to make progress with its marijuana breathalyzer prototype and seems to have little trouble attracting positive media attention…

Below is a chart based on BLO’s OTC listing (CSE charts still not available)…RSI(14) has found strong support at the 50% level…

BLO is off a penny at 44 cents on the CSE as of 9:25 am Pacific…

VANC Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NPH, TSX-V) Update

Another non-resource play that’s attracting considerable attention is VANC Pharmaceuticals (NPH, TSX-V) which is also interesting from a technical perspective given how it’s attempting to break out above a short-term downtrend line and Fib. resistance at 54 cents…a bullish “W” has formed in the RSI(14), and the rising 50-day SMA is providing excellent support after acting as resistance through most of January and February…

Continued momentum here will depend on whether there’s a confirmed breakout, on a closing basis of course, above the downtrend line and the Fib. resistance…NPH climbed as high as 57 cents in early trading but is now unchanged at 53 cents as of 9:25 am Pacific…

Tinka Resources Ltd. (TK, TSX-V) Update

Zinc is one of the most promising metals for 2015 given bullish supply-demand dynamics…a play in this space that has the potential of rebounding as the year progresses is Tinka Resources (TK, TSX-V)…yesterday,the company announced that it has arranged a financing up to $7 million at 21.5 cents per unit…

International Finance Corp. (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, is expected to subscribe for nearly two-thirds of that private placement…upon closing, IFC will become an insider of the company holding approximately 14.1% of Tinka on an undiluted basis…

As you can see on this 1.5-year weekly chart, TK broke out above a downtrend line late last year…support is very strong at 18 cents with Fib. resistance at 26 cents…

TK is up a penny in light trading at 22 cents as of 9:25 am Pacific…

Amarc Resources Ltd. (AHR, TSX-V) Update

There’s lots happening in British Columbia…we do expect the Sheslay district to heat up profoundly with the potential for near-term new discoveries…not only of course is Doubleview on the cusp of a major breakthrough, but Garibaldi Resources (GGI, TSX-V) has already kicked off its 2015 exploration season at the Grizzly which will lead to first-ever drilling – and we know what their success ratio is like on drill holes elsewhere…

Further south in the Cariboo region, meanwhile, Amarc Resources (AHR, TSX-V) is garnering increased attention as predicted following its announcement in late November that was overshadowed by the overall market turmoil at the time…

Volume picked up significantly in AHR last month, and the company secured the funds through an insider loan to carry out a follow-up round of drilling…AHR traded as low as 6.5 cents in December and hit a new 52-week high of 18 cents March 19…

In late November, Amarc reported highly encouraging results from an initial 9-hole drill program at the company’s IKE Project in the Cariboo region…this is an early-stage bulk-tonnage porphyry Copper-Molybdenum-Silver discovery in the heart of a producing area…all 9 holes intersected chalcopyrite and molybdenite mineralization from surface and over a broad area measuring 1,200 m east-west by 600 m north-south and to depths of approximately 500 m…

Interval highlights included 247 m grading 0.42% CuEq in IK-14-001; 234 m @ 0.43% CuEq in IK-14-002; and 308 m @ 0.41% CuEq in IK-14-006…these results, along with post-drilling geological, geochemical and geophysical surveys completed outward from the drilled area, indicate that the IKE porphyry system has the potential to host a significant resource…this is still early in the game…AHR can be expected to aggressively follow up on this discovery…

John’s 3-year weekly AHR chart shows a “Big Picture” bullish trend with a confirmed breakout above the 10-cent level early this month with a recent confirmed breakout above Fib. resistance at 15 cents…buy pressure has recently replaced a long period of sell pressure…

Below is an updated 3-year weekly chart for AHR which is unchanged at 16.5 cents as of 9:25 am Pacific…the odds appear to favor AHR overcoming the 15-cent resistance and moving toward the next Fib. level…

Copper Mountain Mining Corp. (CUM, TSX) Update

Copper Mountain Mining Corp. (CUM, TSX) released production results this morning for the 1st quarter of 2015 from its Copper Mountain mine located in British Columbia’s southern interior…the mine produced 18.4 million pounds of Copper, 7,800 ounces of Gold and 80,300 ounces of Silver in Q1…the mill averaged 93.2% operating time for the quarter and a total of 2.9 million tonnes of ore was milled (35,650 tpod) at an average grade of 0.345% Copper…

Recent improvements to mill throughput have given management confidence that the mine is on schedule to meet its 2015 Copper production forecast of 80 million pounds at a total average cost of U.S. $2.00 per pound net of precious metal credits based on an average mill throughput rate of 37,500 tpd for the year and a mill feed grade of 0.33% Cu…however, the company will be hard-pressed to make money at current metal prices after losing $22 million in 2014 despite average realized U.S. prices on metal sales of $3.11 for Copper, $1,266 for Gold and $19.08 for Silver…

Note:  John and Jon both hold share positions in BLO, GGI and DBV.